I know this issue has been brought up and I have read through all the threads concerning this issue but I am not tech savvy, I don't use Caliber, Digital Additions or SQLite as mentioned in one of the threads. I don't know how to find files, change formats, etc.

So I was wondering if someone could tell me why when I deleted all my original shelves on my KOBO Touch e-reader and made all new ones that when I bought another book and synced my e-reader the old shelves showed up mixed in with my new shelves. I proceeded to delete all the shelves again but 2 of my authors shelves went triplicate and even though I have removed all the books off those shelves they will not delete and you can not rename them and when I sync my e-reader all the books I have taken off those triplicate shelves go right back on the shelves again. All the other authors shelves and I had 5 pages of them were able to be deleted.

I only upload e-pubs from KOBO, only use the KOBO desktop and only use the options available on my KOBO e-reader. With that in mind does anyone know how to delete these shelves since KOBO support has no idea how to do this which just baffles the heck out of me.

I have totally given up on shelves. My Aura now has 8 "Read" shelves, 4 "Library book" shelves and a ton of other duplications. Whatever the reason (I've added books from Calibre but never messed with the shelves using it, I have no idea why they keep returning and multiplying) they just keep on multiplying. I finally got rid of them then bam! One sync and they were back. With even MORE multiples. They're annoying and so I just stopped using them. Today I, once again, signed out of my account on the Aura and back in trying to fix issues (multiple shelves and the not communicating with device error). Not only did I get all the multiplying shelves back, and more, it no longer let me sign into Digital Editions...apparently it uses an authorization every time you sign out of Kobo and back in, then when you go back on ADE to download a book if you've used them all you're no longer authorized...and of course I couldn't read any of the books on the device I'd bought from Diesel Books, Books on Board, or borrowed from the library. I had to have Adobe reset My authorizations. It's really frustrating.

The multiple shelves problem is something happening on the Kobo server. Or an interaction between the server and the device. As Kobo store the info about the shelves on the server, logging out or doing a factory reset will not fix this problem. When you log in again, the shelves will be downloaded from the server. This will include the duplicates.

There are three ways I can think of to fix this:

- Use calibre to delete all the shelves and then sync.
- Manual editing of the database to mark the duplicate shelves as deleted and then sync.
- Get Kobo support to delete the duplicates and then sync. If you do this, they will probably ask you to do a factory reset or log out first. Tell them you have just done this and they came back.

Are there step by step instructions somewhere how to do this because I can see nothing in calibre about shelves. Thanks!

I was afraid someone would ask

To do it using calibre:

1) Open the configuration for the Kobo driver you are using. This is either the main KoboTouch driver or the KoboTouchExtended driver.
2) Remove the column names you currently have in the shelf columns field. That is the last field before the check boxes.
3) Into the shelf columns field, enter the search name of another column in your calibre library. it needs to be a columns that displays text rather than a date or number.
4) Uncheck the "Create bookshelves" option
5) Make sure the "Delete empty bookshelves" option is selected.
6) Save the changes
7) Make sure that on the "Sending books to devices" page of the preferences that "Metadata management" is set to automatic.
8) Restart calibre
9) Connect the Kobo device and let calibre do its thing.
10) When calibre has finished eject the device
11) Check the shelves are all gone and sync to the Kobo server to tell it to delete the shelves.

The only problem with this is if there are books on the device that are not in the calibre library. If any of those books are on shelves, those particular shelves are not empty and the driver will not delete them.

If you want to clean-up the shelves by directly editing the database, you can. But, as it is a dangerous thing to do, I will simply state the changes needed. If you understand them and want to risk it, go ahead. If you don't understand them, I recommend not attempting to do it.

The database on the device is an SQLite database. It is in ".kobo\KoboReader.sqlite". The shelves are stored in the "Shelf" table in the database. The columns to look at are "Name" and "_IsDeleted" and possibly one of the timestamps. Just deleting these rows is not enough. The next sync to Kobo will probably bring them back.

If you change "_IsDeleted" to "true" for all rows in the table, the shelves will be deleted from the device and the server at the next sync.

You can selectively change "_IsDeleted" to "true" for just the extra shelves. When I did this, I changed it for all duplicated shelves the except the one with oldest "CreationDate".

If you want to clean-up the shelves by directly editing the database, you can. But, as it is a dangerous thing to do, I will simply state the changes needed. If you understand them and want to risk it, go ahead. If you don't understand them, I recommend not attempting to do it.

The database on the device is an SQLite database. It is in ".kobo\KoboReader.sqlite". The shelves are stored in the "Shelf" table in the database. The columns to look at are "Name" and "_IsDeleted" and possibly one of the timestamps. Just deleting these rows is not enough. The next sync to Kobo will probably bring them back.

If you change "_IsDeleted" to "true" for all rows in the table, the shelves will be deleted from the device and the server at the next sync.

You can selectively change "_IsDeleted" to "true" for just the extra shelves. When I did this, I changed it for all duplicated shelves the except the one with oldest "CreationDate".

After backing-up of course, I went all out this morning, and deleted the full lines for all duplicated / triplicated active shelves (keeping the most recent), and all the obsolete shelves which were not even visible on the kobos. It worked fine, but I decided a while back not to sync with kobo when not absolutely necessary. When I had to, after I last had to do a factory reset, I started with eliminating from kobo desktop the very few books I'd bought from kobo (from the computer, to the computer, anyway), and I didn't notice kobocreated shelves in the database.

If you want to clean-up the shelves by directly editing the database, you can. But, as it is a dangerous thing to do, I will simply state the changes needed. If you understand them and want to risk it, go ahead. If you don't understand them, I recommend not attempting to do it.

The database on the device is an SQLite database. It is in ".kobo\KoboReader.sqlite". The shelves are stored in the "Shelf" table in the database. The columns to look at are "Name" and "_IsDeleted" and possibly one of the timestamps. Just deleting these rows is not enough. The next sync to Kobo will probably bring them back.

If you change "_IsDeleted" to "true" for all rows in the table, the shelves will be deleted from the device and the server at the next sync.

You can selectively change "_IsDeleted" to "true" for just the extra shelves. When I did this, I changed it for all duplicated shelves the except the one with oldest "CreationDate".